Event Log #002

[caelumstaff]

EVENT LOG number 002 The hotel humbly hopes that you're settling in well and are taking advantage of the various pleasures on offer for your stay. In Mr Bennet's opinion, things have been going quite well and he doesn't think that the guests are unhappy at all. New guests have arrived, some have left, it's all going along perfectly. So, of course, this is when the next troublesome thing pops up. SHADOWS One morning, characters will find the hotel to be a little dimmer than usual, a little more shadowy. Yet if anyone asks Mr Bennet about it, he will claim to not have noticed anything different than usual. Either way, as the characters move on with their day, they'll start to notice a few odd things start to happen. PHASE ONE: Initially, characters will notice their shadow beginning to move a little out of sync with them. Discreetly at first until eventually, their shadow takes on a life of its own, mischievously playing with characters and enjoying their newfound freedom. Very Peter Pan, and completely harmless. PHASE TWO: Now, shadows might disappear entirely, roaming the hotel to their own discretion and ignoring the characters they belong to. As the shadow takes on this free will, characters will begin to feel slightly off balance and have a hard time feeling whole without their shadow around. The shadow may become slightly aggressive as well if told they should return to their characters, fighting back in their own way from knocking things over to outright attacking other characters. It's a little hard to fight back though when your opponent is a shadow, isn't it? PHASE THREE: The shadows have become fully aggressive now, fighting anyone who tries to get them to return to their original person. Characters will find themselves feeling weak and low energy as a result of losing their shadow. Eventually, the shadows will come back to their owners but the characters will find themselves sinking into their shadow, eventually changing places entirely with their shadow. The only way to rescue a character from this fate is for another character to pull them out of their shadow forcibly. The bright side is once a character is pulled out of their shadow, it all returns to normal and their shadow is no longer sentient. These phases will last over the course of the week and it is quite alright to stay in phase one/two/three. Not all shadows will become aggressive, not all shadows will be playful. Feel free to manipulate your character's shadow in the way that's most fun for you. NAV | PREMISE | RULES | FAQ | TAKEN hotelcaelum | caelumserver | caelumooc

Comments

[velluminous]

[ only in the sense that she now has a hand to hold literally hostage, squeezing more tightly than you'd expect of such a small woman ]

Thirty minutes?! I could go to sleep faster and would not need to worry about coma!

[vecna]

[HOW TIGHTLY ARE WE TALKING, HERE

Blithely ignores her comment, in favor of picking the topic himself, I guess-]

Tell me about your city. Where drugs are, apparently, only liable to make someone fall into a coma and not much else.

[velluminous]

[ tightly. ]

Waterdeep... City of Splendours. It is very particular about such things are allowed within its borders.

[vecna]

[His hand......]

So what makes it so... splendid?

[velluminous]

Its size. Its potential. Two million people—artisans, scholars, lords with such incredible wealth. Its port, its guilds, its trade, its festivals. Griffons soaring through sky. Its Walking Statues. I barely know where to begin to explain to someone who has never even heard of it.

[vecna]

[He can’t even begin to imagine.]

Why don’t you start with where you live? What’s it like?

[velluminous]

[ you mean Teaferth?

...

oh, the Vaux estate?

...

or, no—her little flat in the South Ward...?

... ]

...I do not live anywhere now.

[vecna]

[…?]

You have to live somewhere.

[Even Henry lived somewhere, even if that somewhere was another dimension parallel from his own.]

[velluminous]

I am living here, then.

[ quietly, somewhere in the room, a clock ticks... Mammon, just let the coma take her. ]

[vecna]

[Well, now she’s just being difficult.]

You have a knack for avoiding answering very basic questions, you know.

[velluminous]

[ her grip becomes nigh-crushing ] My college burned, my family home is vile and loathsome, and I am being evicted from my boarding house. I live here now! There! Happy? Same answer!

[vecna]

[Ow? Ow??? Wherein Henry realizes how strong she is for such a tiny woman, help him.

His other hand moves to rest on her crushing grip, fingers flexing, as though asking to dial it back a little.]

Your college burned down?

[And then a series of not-homes followed. That feels familiar. ]

[velluminous]

[ that grounds her, his touch. just enough that she realizes the pain she's causing and releases, all at once, pulling her hand back like the arm of a machine. ]

Oh, why not? It is not as though I can escape Teaferth's Great Conflagration even here. Yes, there was fire. Swallowed up. My home of eleven years...

[vecna]

[Such a concise explanation, yet it reveals more lurking in between the lines. It is not as though I can escape Teaferth's Great Conflagration even here. An event that must loom over her like some great shadow.

Henry retracts his hand, flexing his fingers again, banishing the soreness.]

All that knowledge, too. For someone like you, that must have been heartbreaking.

["Heartbreaking" is what he says. But "enraging" is what he wonders at, what he means. The bitterness here is already on display.]

[velluminous]

Heartbreaking? It was fucking enraging. [ and yes, her heart has been shattered by it. she guards the pieces she managed to preserve like a hyena guards its scraps from the lions; by baring her teeth, snarling. biting, if she must. ] Nothing should have been lost that day. Where were those mages who could produce water, or smother flame? Where were those wards that would keep spark from catching on so many fragile, ancient pages? Where?

[vecna]

[And there it is. Precisely what he wanted to hear — that anger is so enticing to him, feels like it’s reflected in himself. Strange, how it almost feels a comfort; though of course he knows better than to say that.

Curious, though, what she said.]

You’re saying… What, then? Something had been conspired against the college?

[velluminous]

[ oh, she's gone and said far, far too much. she snaps her jaw shut with a click and glances down at the handkerchief and its new spot of blood. deep breath. ]

Mammon, I don't know! I am tired.

[vecna]

[Ah, but Henry will remember that.]

I see.

[But if she’s going to clam up, then short of plumbing her mind, he’ll not earn much else. He can tell already.]

For what it’s worth, maybe this hotel can be a respite, if not a home. You’re off to a good start — the Tylenol hasn’t killed you yet.

[velluminous]

[ she'd forgotten the Tylenol, and now that worry comes crashing back: how does she tell drug exhaustion apart from her usual? ]

What do you mean, yet? You are not funny.

[vecna]

Come on. I'm a little funny.

[Morbidly. Sarcastically. A little meanly, though he lacks any particularly sharp edge right now.]

If you haven't had some kind of allergic reaction yet, you're not going to.

[velluminous]

[ swats at him ] Do not smile like that!

[vecna]

[ma’am!!! He leans back.]

Like what?

[velluminous]

Like you think I am simply so funny.

[vecna]

I just think you were worrying for nothing. How's the ache? Better?

[velluminous]

[ ...oh. she hadn't noticed the slow receding of pain as it had happened; now that he draws her attention back to it, the duller ache is almost surprising. ]

I—perhaps little bit.